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Chapter 2: Friends and Enemies

The morning gong rang loud as the sun began to arise.

Tigress sprang out of her bed. She couldn't wait to meet her new friend. Dai was also just as excited. He sprung outta bed and walked over back to Tigress' door.

"Tigress? You awake?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good morning."

"Good morning to you too, Dai."

"Don't worry Tigress. I'm gonna get you outta there. I gotta find the caretakers and convince them to let you out. So I'll be right back okay?"

"O-Okay…"

"It's gonna be okay. I'll be back."

Dai walked up to Miss Chen who was walking down the hall.

"Miss Chen?"

"Huh? Oh there you are Dai. You weren't in your room. Come, come. I'm rounding up the other children so I can introduce them to you."

"Can Tigress come out of her room?"

That sentence that came out of that little cat's mouth, was something that practically gave Miss Chen a mini heart attack. He said it with such innocence.

If it wasn't for his innocent tone, she would have outright refused. But she just couldn't say no…

She removed the beam to Tigress' room and set it down.

"Meet me at the main gate okay?" Miss Chen said.

"Okay." Dai said as Miss Chen walked away.

Dai pushed open the door and met face to face with Tigress. Dai didn't expect to be this close, this startled him and Tigress both.

"Huh?! Wha?!" Tigress exclaimed.

"I didn't think you'd be up this early. I wanted to surprise you. Sorry for scaring you, Tigress."

"D-dai?"

"Mhm." Dai smiles.

Tigress jumps up and grabs Dai forcing him into a big tight hug. Too tight for Dai.

"Dai! You actually came!"

"Uh huh...uh...Tigress…. could ya-...ah! Too tight…!

Tigress gasped and immediately let go.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

"That's okay. I'm not hurt or anything."

"You aren't?"

"Nope."

"That's good. So. What do ya wanna do?"

"Well, Miss Chen said we should gather everyone in the main gate so she could introduce me to the others."

"Everyone?"

"Mhm."

"...No...I can't go. They're all gonna run away from me…They hate me!...They hate me because I'm a Tiger...they either run away afraid or they throw rocks at me…"

"How come the caretakers don't do anything?"

"I've never gotten any bruises from it, so they never believe me…"

Tears begin to form in her eyes.

Dai gets closer to her and puts his arm around her in a light hug.

"Well I'm gonna make sure that changes."

"H-huh?"

"I'll just try to convince them that you're not a monster."

"B-but...what if it doesn't work?...What if they throw rocks again?..."

"Then I'll make sure not a single one hits you."

"Thank you, Dai."

She grabs him in another tight hug.

"Umm...Tigress?"

"Oh! Right. Sorry."

"That's okay. We're gonna have to work on that."

LATER

"Children. We have a new member of the Bao Gu family. Now he's a bit different than you all, so please... don't treat him like you would treat Tigress. Okay?"

Tigress who kept a measure of distance away from the main gate, heard those harsh words from Miss Chen and her head sunk to the ground. Dai put his paw on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Tigress. It's gonna be okay."

Sniff* "I hope…"

"So children." Miss Chen continued. "I'd like you to meet Dai."

"Ready, Tigress?" Dai held her paw in a firm grip.

"...yeah." Tigress wasn't enthusiastic about this plan of Dai's.

Dai emurged from the hallway with a reluctant Tigress in tow and revealed himself to the other children. A large collective gasp can be heard.

Voices from the children's murmuring echo as they see Dai holding paws with Tigress.

"It's the monster!"

"He looks just like her!"

"There's two of them!"

"It's a shadow demon!"

"Somebody kill it!"

"He's going to team up with the monster so they can eat us all!"

Dai shouted back: "Wait! We're not monsters! We're just-"

Dai's speech was interrupted as a rock made it's way to his nose.

Dai fell to the floor and yelped in pain. He clenched his nose with his paws and felt something wet.

Miss Chen and the other caretakers gasped in horror.

He looked and there was blood on his paws. Dai was now terrified. He began crying. Tigress knelt down and held him the way a mother would hold her newborn. She too was frightened at the sight of him bleeding. Tigress was in a rage. Tears of anger began to drop from her face.

"WHO DID THIS?!"

Her scream coupled with Dai's bawling would make even the most hardened warrior shake in fear.

Blood and tears mixed with each other on the floor and on Dai's face and Miss Chen became angry.

Scratch that, Miss Chen was furious.

"That's it! I've had it with this! I introduce a new student and this is the welcome he gets?! You should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

The children all went silent. Nothing could be heard except for the crying of both Tigress and Dai.

"He's bleeding...But...demons can't bleed…"

"He can't be a demon…"

"I feel awful…"

"Oh my gosh…"

"Is Dai gonna be okay?"

"If Dai isn't a demon monster...then does that mean Tigress isn't a demon monster?"

"We're so sorry for everything, Tigress…"

Miss Chen spoke up.

"Whoever threw the rock better come forward and apologize now!"

Apart from Dai's sobbing, the room was completely silent.

"Okay then. If I don't get an answer before the day is up, you will ALL be punished."

Dai's sobbing slowed down and eventually he stopped.

"M-miss Chen…?"

"Yes, Tigress?"

"I think I know who did it…"

"Who?"

"Those three…" Her finger pointed across the room towards Zhao, Lao and Bao.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because they're always the first ones to throw rocks at me. And then they blame me for things I didn't do."

Miss Chen looks over at the three little pigs who hoofs were behind their backs in an innocent look.

"Boys? Is this true?"

"Of course not Miss Chen. We didn't do nothing." Zhao said.

"Yeah, we didn't." Lao said.

"Yeah." Bao said.

"Then you wouldn't mind showing me what you have in your hoofs."

"What?" All three of them said in unison.

"What do you have behind your backs?"

A rabbit sitting behind them looked at their hoofs.

"They have a bunch of rocks, Miss Chen!"

"Why you little!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Miss Chen erupted.

"You three are gonna apologize to Tigress and Dai right now!"

"No offense, Miss Chen, but...we'd rather die."

"Then you leave me no choice. Zhao, Lao, Bao. Pack your things. You're leaving."

"Wh-what? No! Wait! We'll apologize!"

"You had your chance to apologise, and you threw that away. It's too late for that now. You three have caused enough trouble for one day. And heaven knows the things you've done to Tigress when I wasn't around. If you think you're good enough to act like this, then you're good enough to live on the streets."

"No! Please, we'll be good. We promise!"

"Get them to their rooms and gather their things. They leave today. I refuse to allow any child to be hurt again in this orphanage. Tigress, take Dai to the nurse. As for everyone else, there's gonna be some changes around here!"

Tigress picked up Dai and carried him to the nurse's quarters.

"It's gonna be okay Dai. It's gonna be okay."

A few minutes later…

A worried Tigress paced back and forth the entrance of the nurse's office. A female goat opened the door. It's Head Nurse Ying.

"Miss Nurse? Is he gonna be okay?"

Nurse Ying smiles at Tigress before kneeling down and cupping her tear streaked cheek.

"He's gonna be okay."

Tigress' mood shifts to joy.

"May I see him?"

"Funnily enough, he asked to see you, ah, but unfortunately he's resting. He'll be perfectly fine by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"I know it's gonna be awhile without your new friend, but I'm afraid you're just going to have to wait."

Tigress shifted to sadness. She was happy that her new friend was okay, but she wished she could've been able to play with him.

She wasn't going to go back to her room though. This was her friend. And she's gonna be the bestest friend ever. He took a rock for her. This was the least she could do. She grabbed her blanket from her room and laid down next to the nurse's office door. She covered herself and waited until he came back. She knew no matter what, she was gonna make it up to him.